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Five Ways To Prevent Beard Dandruff

When you first become a beardsman, you learn about all sorts of realities and occasional issues that will arise as you continue to grow out your beard. Ranging from beard patchiness to uneven growth from your temple to your chin, growing a full beard can be difficult at times. However, one area that sometimes falls by the wayside and one that we strongly recommend you keep an eye on is keeping your facial skin moist and healthy. You might not find this particular aspect of being a beardsman to be overly important, but let us share one two-word reason to dispel that opinion: beard dandruff.

Just like the hair on top of your head, your beard is prone to developing dandruff if not cared for directly or if over exposed to harmful elements that are prone to drying out your skin. Now luckily for beardsmen everywhere, taking care of your face and beard are a little easier than the rest of your hair because you can get a better look at all of the areas on your face without needing any sort of double mirror setup. Still though, there are necessary steps to take and things to keep in mind to keep your beard dandruff at bay.

Beard Wash Is Key

We know that you might still be under the impression that body wash or shampoo are fine to use on your beard, however, we cannot stress enough how bad of an idea that is. Those products aren’t designed with your hair-covered face in mind and tend to end up drying out your beard or your face or in some cases, both. Beard wash though is designed with beardsmen in mind, formulated to clean your skin and facial hair without drying them out and removing 100% of the important oils found on your face. In terms of how often to use beard wash, we recommend twice a week tops with that frequency dependent upon what sort of elements your face is exposed to on a day to day basis. It might only be the first step in battling beard dandruff, but it’s an incredibly important one none the less.

Try Out Beard Softener

In the pantheon of beard care products, beard softener is the one that seems to be passed over most often. Designed to act similarly to conditioner for your head hair, beard softener lubricates your hair and helps reduce the dryness associated with more brittle beards. All of this helps keep your skin healthy and reduce the flaking that can leave your beard looking and feeling less healthy than you’d like. Also like hair conditioner, beard softener can be used on the days when you don’t use beard wash prior. Once you beard is clean, helping to keep it moist is the second step in ensuring beard dandruff doesn’t begin to build up.

Beard Oil, Your Daily Defense Against Dandruff

Beard oil is by far the most readily available and most commonly used daily beard care product on the market. In the battle against beard dandruff, beard oil is the stalwart of the defense, usually applied each morning once you’ve performed whatever beard maintenance was required after waking up. Beard oil helps keep your beard lubricated, starting at the skin level and working its way up and out through your facial hair. It’s the product that’s easiest to use and integrate into your daily routine. Basically, if you’re only going to use one beard care product for whatever reason, beard oil is the most important one you can use to prevent beard dandruff on a daily basis.

Beards Still Require Sunscreen

Alright we’re not necessarily referring to your facial hair itself on this one, but the amount of guys who opt to not use sunscreen once they’ve grown a beard is simply staggering. Do beards help prevent exposure to UV rays? Sure, but probably not to the degree you’d think. If you go this route and ignore your face when lathering up, you’re almost guaranteed to get a burn at some point. This will suck for two reasons, first of which is the reality of how hard it is to apply aloe to a sunburnt face covered in a thick beard, and second is what happens when your face sheds. Similar to a bad case of beard dandruff, flaking facial skin will get lodged in your beard and make it look incredibly unkempt and unhealthy, two things we always like to avoid.

You’re Still Your Worst Enemy

Just like the man who picks and scratches at buildup on his scalp, the beardsman who overly picks at and strokes his beard is more prone to developing beard dandruff. Many of us are prone to touch anything on our heads that seems irregular or out of place, leading to scabs being pulled off or clumps of dead skin being lifted and causing flakes to form. Our best advice: stop this at all costs. Okay, that was extreme, but if you can cut down the amount of time you spend physically touching your beard throughout the day, the better chance you have of not developing beard dandruff.